Around September 10, 1961

Wernher Von Braun stated in his letter to United States Vice President Lyndon Johnson, “we have an excellent chance of beating the Soviets to the first landing of a crew on the moon.” The letter discussed the strategic direction the United States should take to surpass of the Soviet Union in the space race. With the Cold War raging between the U.S. and the Soviet Union,...

Just a week after the attack on Fort Sumter, tempers flared in Baltimore, Maryland. Secessionist and southern sympathizers in Baltimore orchestrated a riot against Union soldiers while they traveled through the city on their way to Washington D.C, that left four soldiers and twelve civilians dead. As stated in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, “A clash between pro-South civilians...

Dated February 14, 1962, a letter written by Jean Warren Hight reads “It was so much more than a tour-it was a deeply rewarding experience, a glimpse into the tremendously fruitful effort you have been engaged in,” while the following day, Cornelia Otis Skinner penned “Many thanks for your magnificent telecast it is one of the best things that has happened in our country all my admiration...

The NAACP's litigation strategy against school segregation went through a drastic change during the summer of 1950. Instead of working within the confines of Plessy v. Ferguson, which declared the constitutionality of the "separate but equal doctrine", the NAACP decided that the time had come to force the courts to reconsider segregation. Prior to 1950, the NAACP only tried cases where...

Students in the Nashville non-violent movement – a project of the SNCC – staged a sit-in at a downtown drug store on March 10th, 1962, in protest of segregation.The store owner subsequently threw boiling water at the protestors, who were there on a non-violent basis. After being violently ejected from the drug store, the owner followed up with warrants against the group....

On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 which stated the United States Peace Corps held a mission “to promote a better understanding of Americans and to foster a better understanding of other cultures among Americans at home.” The Kennedy Administration created the Peace Corps as an agency in the State Department with the goal of training American men and...

With unswimmable water and inedible fish, water recreation on Belle Isle is quite limited. A 1962 report from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare about the pollution of The Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and Western Lake Erie described current water quality issues and their main causes. The report begins with how important water recreation and usage is to Michigan, describing the...

“There’s no crying in baseball.” These famous words were spoken by Tom Hanks in the movie A League of Their Own. In 1992, Director Penny Marshall brought the true story of women in baseball to movie theatres across the world. At a time when America was at the forefront of brutal World War II, the future of Major League baseball...

Born Bobby Zimmerman, Bob Dylan escaped a life in small town Minnesota and eventually arrived in Greenwich Village, New York in 1961. Andrew Muchin, author of the article “Dylan’s Jewish Pilgrimage,” argues that Dylan’s arrival in New York gave him the chance to “reinvent himself as the musical heir to folk troubadour Woody Guthrie.” Zimmerman’s choice of names, given the prominence...

"Recommended location and design has been developed with full consideration given to existing and proposed land use, to urban renewal and industrial redevelopment projects and plans, and to all elements of the official Master Plan of the City of Detroit."

As the Wayne County Road Commission points out in its location study for the Fisher Freeway, Detroit's Master Plan had written off Delray,...